Before her body hit the ground, I sent another lightning bolt through the center of the guard’s forehead. The impact lifted him off his feet and threw him backward.
My other bolts had taken out most of the other guards, but two remained standing. They lifted their swords as they prepared to attack, but instead of rushing at us, they glanced at each other and sprinted for the door.
Before they could get away, Ellery’s lightning crackled across the small space and hit them both in their backs. Lifted off their feet by the impact, their bodies hit a wall as the cracked window shattered.
Glass sprayed across the floor and hit the tile in a cascading, tinkling wave. The body of another soldier thudded across the floor as it tumbled inside.
The man groaned and started to push himself up as a gargoyle landed on the edge of the broken windowsill. It perched there, its clawed fingers gripping the edge and its wings half-tucked behind its back.
The remaining servant sputtered strange sounds as he staggered into a counter and stood there, shaking and pale. The gargoyle leapt inside the kitchen, seized the guard’s head, and tore it from the man’s shoulders.
The servant let out a strangled squeak before spinning and fleeing further into the kitchens. He only made it ten feet before my next lightning bolt took him down.
Silence descended before more screams from outside shattered it. I felt no remorse for killing the servants; they’d had their chance to leave and didn’t take it. Because of that, they couldn’t leave this room alive.
The gargoyle’s head twisted toward the swinging doors as more shouts came from the hallway. Footsteps thundered toward us.
“Can you take care of them for us?” Ellery asked. “We have to keep moving.”
The gargoyle nodded. “I will see that they do not leave here alive.”
“Thank you.”
“Samael, get us out of here,” I commanded.
“This way.”
When he ran to the right, we followed.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Ryker
This time, when we entered the servants’ passage, it wasn’t as empty as before. A woman carrying a tray of medical supplies sprinted around the corner. The contents of the tray rattled in her hands but didn’t fall off.
The second she saw us, she skidded to a halt, and a pair of scissors slid off to bounce across the ground. Her eyes bulged, her hands trembled, and her lower lip quivered as she took a small step back.
“We won’t hurt you,” Ellery said.
I wasn’t sure we could uphold that promise; we couldn’t send her anywhere to prevent her from revealing our location. Bandages tumbled from the tray as the woman continued her retreat.
“Don’t move any further,” I told her.
The tray fell from the woman’s hands and clattered across the floor as she turned to run. Before she could make it more than three feet, a dagger flashed past me and embedded in her nape.
Her arms and legs flew out before the woman sprawled across the ground. Her fingers and feet twitched, but she didn’t move.
“Oh,” Scarlet breathed.
Samael brushed past me, bent over the woman, and removed his blade from her spine. No one spoke as he severed her head and dropped it next to her.
When I glanced at Ellery, she bit her bottom lip as she stared at the decapitated woman. However, she didn’t protest Samael’s actions. She hadn’t made it this far without developing an understanding of what to do to survive and protect others.
I held my hand out to her, and she clasped it. When her gaze shifted to me, she managed a tremulous smile.
“We have to move,” Samael said. “More servants will come… soon.”
As he led the way, we jogged after him. Our feet thudding against the ground and our soft breaths were the only sounds as we followed him through the tunnels and toward the library.
